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How to Conduct a Literature Review

This is a guide to help graduate students successfully find, evaluate, and manage resources for a literature review. Adapted from How to Conduct a Literature Review: A Guide for Graduate Students, by Iowa State University Library. https://instr.iastate.li

Where to Search

Once you have a topic in mind and you've got an idea about a search strategy, the next step is to do some searching. Before you go off and spend all your time searching Google, take a look at the hundreds of information resources purchased by the Library:

Disciplinary Databases

The Library's A-Z Databases page lists over 100 indexes to journal literature across all disciplines.  Academic Search Ultimate, is an example of general periodical index, while ERIC, focuses specifically on literature in the education field. There are a couple of reasons to use the databases available through the library:

  • Much of the information in them is not available elsewhere
  • The resources have been selected because they are the best at finding literature on a particular topic

A-Z Journal List

The Library’s A-Z Journal List serves as a directory of every journal we subscribe to, organized alphabetically. This tool is useful if you already know the title of a journal you’d like to explore or if you’re checking to see whether the Library provides access to a specific publication you’ve encountered in your research. You can also find Journals grouped by subject area at this page.